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I have ALWAYS been interested in military affairs. Collecting for me began at an early age, and basically progressed to what I own now. It started with toy soldiers, then progressed slowly to the 12-inch G.I. Joe figures, then onto the smaller G.I. Joe figures, then on into military scale models and planes, manuals, books, and then "micro-armor". Recently I have added computer wargames and information to my "collecting" list.
I love having multiple hobbies, that way when you are bored with one, you can always go on to another. With the military being a prime interest for a lot of my hobbies, I am NEVER bored! Among my impressive collections, I have well over $5000 wrapped up in the 3-3/4 inch G.I. Joe figures, with too many figures to keep track of, plus vehicles, playsets, accessories, etc. I used to know all my figures code-names, specialties, and what weapons and accessories went to each figure. I truly DO NOT consider myself a "serious collector" because I "open" everything. I look at it this way, in fact two ways:
One: What good is something IF you cannot enjoy it?
Basically, you buy a figure, however to keep that figure "valuable" you keep it in the package it comes in. While some people are into that, it is NOT for me. I cannot enjoy something that way. I might as well put it back on the shelf at the store, IF I am going to do that.
Two: An item is ONLY worth something, if another person is "willing" to pay that amount!
Here again is another thing that bothers me about collecting. Your baseball cards, GI Joes, Barbies, or comics are ONLY worth that of which is said, IF someone is willing to pay that much for them. IF they are ONLY willing to pay say 5 cents for a baseball card, then in a sense it is ONLY worth that five cents! This is why I DO NOT buy my collection items for this reason! Besides, what are you going to do? Ask to be buried with your collections? I DON'T THINK SO!
Lately I have started up an old hobby, well it actually wasn't a hobby till I started it up again. Way back (Gawd! Am I that old!!)in the 70's I had an impressive collection of 12-inch GI Joe figures and uniforms, along with some accessories and a couple of jeep vehicles. I still, to this day, DO NOT know what happened to them. My brother and I shared them a lot, so who knows.
Anyway, I was browsing through my local Target one night for new exciting things, and came across a package that really got my eye! It read, "THE ULTIMATE SOLDIER" on the package. They were uniforms and weapon sets made to actually resemble Vietnam war items. The detail was incredible, but the price was less than appealing, around $12.99 for the uniforms and $7.99 for the weapons packs! Well, I had to have them! Below that I saw a 12-inch figure with a camouflage uniform. The label was marked, "SOLDIERS OF THE WORLD".
I picked him up, tossed two uniform sets and two weapons sets into the cart, and proceeded to ask the nearest clerk where their layaway department was. Well, to my disappointment, Target does NOT have a layaway plan! Imagine that!! So, I was more or less "forced" to buy them all! It came to a whopping $65! Got them home, tore em out of the packages and looked at them. Wasn't too impressed with the quality of the stuff, since some of it fell apart when I tried to get it on the "SOLDIERS OF THE WORLD" figure I bought. I glued what I could, and finally had a figure I could be proud of! A week later, I told my best friend, and showed him what I had. He was hooked! Later that week, he invited me over to see what he purchased. Man, he went out and spent more than I did! That led me back into collecting GI Joes, of which I had just got out of with the smaller 3-3/4 inch figures. Now, I was back in!
This is basically what prompted me to put this collecting page up. Over the coming months, I will be adding pics of Joes, and other collector's collections (permission granted of course), and lots of info on all the related military hobbies of collecting!
About two and a half months later and I now have at least 12-14 SOTW figures, 10 GI Joe figures, four footlockers full of weapons, uniforms and accessories, over 150 sandbags (made by my Girlfriend's Mom) and getting more and more with each passing day! Next up will be a couple of cool Hum-Vee vehicles and a couple of boats for my SEAL troops!
